When you are 20 years old, you think you are indestructible and you will live forever, when you are 45, you are not so sure anymore and when you are 70, you are sure that once you will die and most likely you already start to suffer from some chronic disease. Generalizing, as a 20 year old man, you talk about girls, beer, cars and sports, as a 40 years old you talk about your family and your job, when you are 70 the main topics are health and disease, doctors and medication.
But longevity is hot, especially since many young billionaires on social media keep us informed about their quest to live longer, Bryan Johnson and Ray Kurzweil come to mind.
Longevity has been one of my interests since a long time. I remember my first book, “Life Extension, A Practical Approach”, by Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw in 1983, because there is strong relationship between mechanisms of adaptation to training and adaptation to aging, In the meanwhile I collected a big library of books and articles about this topic too, and try a lot of measures myself and others.
Currently I am in the process of writing a book about this topic, which isn’t easy because there almost no scientific consensus about any topic related to aging!
I am writing about aging, the aging processes, the Blue Zones, the colorful history of anti-aging measures, and of course, what we can do ourselves to increase our health span. About senescence, liefstyle, teh use senolytics, geroprotectors, adaptogens, hormesis and much more.
The main goal is not to live longer (called increasing your life span), but mainly to live healthier for a longer time, the so called “health span”. Living longer is most likelyto be a result of that. It means to delay the onset of chronic or age-related diseases. Don’t forget: most people do not die from pure aging, but from a disease or because one organ gives up, because it is older than the other ones. Not all organs age at the same rate. Your heart, your brain, your immune system, your blooddvessels or your bones all age at a different rate. That’s is why it is easy to speak of our calendar age, but not of one, singular biological age.
Important topics of course, are the role of genes, environment, but also of lifestyle components like nutrition and exercise.
Many people start too late doing something about their health. The only call the fire brigade when the house is on fire for some time. Start young with a longevity lifestyle. It is the very best investment for your future. Any other investment is useless when you are sick or dead. An investment in the most beautiful and precious instrument you will possess….. you own body and mind!
And it might save you a lot of money in bills for doctor, hospitals, surgeries or medication.
Recent biomedical developments give us insight in important processes related to aging and in ways to counteracts the processes.
What we can do ourselves?
-Limit caloric intake: eat a bit (10-20%) less than you normally do), practice (intermittent) fasting regularly, or support this with compounds called “caloric restriction mimetics”
-Move more, walk or train, and support this with “exercise mimetics”
– Stay mentally sane and sleep well, these are pretty much related are becoming more and more of a problem for many people.
-Try to avoid toxic exposure, while also this is getting more and more difficult, since we are talking about a huge range of harmful influences that go mostly unnoticed. They poison our food, our land, our skies, our water supply, our living environment, our medications, and our minds. Or more accurate: we allowed other people to do this.
So what do I take myself to modulate the aging processes:
Note: I am not a doctor. This article is for educational purposes only. It is not intended as a substitute for the diagnosis, treatment, or advice of a qualified, licensed medical professional. The facts presented above are offered as educational information only, not medical advice, and in no way should anyone infer that I am practicing medicine. (I had to state this, since it seems there are still too many people drinking bleach, (to whiten their teeth?), drying their cat in the microwave. Just look at: https://darwinawards.com
I take 400 mg of metformin a day (no, I don’t have diabetes)
And I manufacture for myself and a selective group of clients, a small batch of an anti-aging formula capsule containing the following proven compounds: (see bibliography)
-Pterostilbene
-Fisetin
-NMN
-Spermidine
-Rapamycin.
It is an expensive product (though not as expensive as Viagra, or many pharmaceutical products).
One only takes it in a 50 day course, 1 capsule a day. Since I value my life and my health I see it as a valuable investment, since it has proven effective for the prevention of a wide range of age-related problems, thus increasing my health span. I also take some “entourage” products, for specific support mainly from herbal extracts or isolated compounds, but it would beyond the length and purpose of this blogpost. Maybe I will write about these products later.
Apart from writing this book, coaching athletes, working at my company and producing capsules, I also organize our 7th Helping The Best To Get Better – Seminar, on November 8, 2025, in Hilversum, Holland, with 4 excellent speakers about various topics related to sports and performance. Interested? Mail to info@vortx.nl or contact me
Limited bibliography:
Dutta, B. J.; Rakshe, P.S; Maurya, N; Chib, S; Sing, S: Unlocking the Therapeutic Potential of Natural Stilbene: Exploring Pterostilbene as a Powerful Ally Against Aging and Cognitive Decline
Li, Y. R., Li, S., & Lin, C. C. (2018). Effect of resveratrol and pterostilbene on aging and longevity. Biofactors, 44 (1), 69-82.
Yousefzadeh, M.J; Zhu, Y et al. : Fisetin is a senotherapeutic that extends health and lifespan. EBioMedicine 36 (2018) 18–28
Sharma, A.; Chabloz, S.; Lapides, R.A.; Roider, E.; Ewald, C.Y. Potential Synergistic Supplementation of NAD+ Promoting Compounds as a Strategy for Increasing Healthspan. Nutrients 2023, 15, 445.
Eisenberg, T; Abdellatif, M et al: Cardioprotection and lifespan extension by the natural polyamine spermidine Nat Med. 2016 December ; 22(12): 1428–1438
Blagosklonny, M.V: From rapalogs to anti-aging formula. Oncotarget, 2017, Vol. 8, (No. 22), pp: 35492-35507
